D.A. Davidson & CO. Grows Stake in Baker Hughes Company $BKR

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in shares of Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR) by 46.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 117,554 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 37,430 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Baker Hughes were worth $7,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Baker Hughes during the 4th quarter worth $778,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Baker Hughes by 12.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,755,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,813,000 after buying an additional 309,996 shares during the last quarter. OP Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in Baker Hughes in the first quarter valued at about $6,049,000. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new position in Baker Hughes during the fourth quarter worth about $830,000. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd increased its position in shares of Baker Hughes by 28.6% during the fourth quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 469,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,373,000 after acquiring an additional 104,428 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BKR. Zacks Research raised Baker Hughes from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. HSBC upped their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Baker Hughes from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Baker Hughes in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Baker Hughes from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Baker Hughes news, CAO Rebecca L. Charlton sold 5,088 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.22, for a total transaction of $326,751.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 15,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,027,327.34. The trade was a 24.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli sold 181,411 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.43, for a total value of $10,599,844.73. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 703,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,102,232.92. The trade was a 20.50% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 367,910 shares of company stock valued at $22,420,797 over the last quarter. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Baker Hughes Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BKR opened at $55.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock has a market cap of $55.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.96. Baker Hughes Company has a 1-year low of $38.97 and a 1-year high of $70.41. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.53.

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $6.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.71 billion. Baker Hughes had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 11.17%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Baker Hughes Company will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Baker Hughes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th were issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Baker Hughes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.39%.

About Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes is an energy technology company that provides a broad portfolio of products, services and digital solutions for the oil and gas and industrial markets. Its offerings span oilfield services and equipment — including drilling, evaluation, completion and production technologies — as well as turbomachinery, compressors and related process equipment used in midstream and downstream operations. The company also supplies aftermarket services, field support and integrated solutions designed to improve asset performance and uptime across the energy value chain.

The firm’s roots trace back to the merger of Baker International and Hughes Tool Company, and more recently it combined with GE’s oil and gas business in 2017 to form Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE); subsequent changes in ownership restored Baker Hughes as an independent publicly traded company.